The Zydretae ( ka, ზიდრიტები) (Zudrêtai or Zudreitai) were an ancient people of
Colchis
In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians are generally though ...
recorded by the
Classical accounts as dwelling on the coast of the
Pontus Euxinus
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
(Black Sea), on the southern side of the Apsarus river (modern-day
Çoruh
The Chorokh ( ka, ჭოროხი ''Ch'orokhi'', tr, Çoruh, hy, Չորոխ ''Ch’vorokh'', el, Άκαμψις, ''Akampsis'') is a river that rises in the Mescit Mountains in north-eastern Turkey, flows through the cities of Bayburt, İ ...
/Chorokhi in the borderlands of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
), and between the
Machelonoi and the
Lazi tribes. The early 2nd century
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
author
Arrian lists several neighboring and probably ethnically related tribes on a west to east orientation: the
Sannoi (
Sanigs
The Sanigs ( ka, სანიგები) were a tribe inhabiting Western Georgian/ Abkhazia during antiquity. Their ethnic identity is obscure and is the subject of a controversy. They are first attested in the works of Pliny, Arrian and Memn ...
),
Drilae
Drilae ( ka, დრილები, ''Drilebi'') were an ancient western Georgian tribe, inhabiting mountainous coasts of the southern shores of the Black Sea. In the hinterland of Trapezus dwelt the Drilae (Dri/lai, Dri/llai), a Kartvelian tribe ...
, Machelonoi,
Heniochoi, Zudreitai, and
Lazoi (''Perip.'' 1 1.1-2). The anonymous (probably post-4th century) ''Periplus Ponti Euxini'' places them further south between the Akamosis and Archabis rivers.
[Edwards, Robert W. (1988), The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey, p. 129-130. ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', Vol. 42.] Little is known about the Zydretae’s social and political life, but at that time when Arrian described them (c. 130s AD), they seem to have been subjected to the king of
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
in eastern Georgia.
References
Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)
Tribes in Greco-Roman historiography
Anatolia
Ancient peoples of Anatolia
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